The ‘It Fryske Greidhynder’ Breeding Day in Drachten was Haike van der Meulen´s last day as an active Jury member. On the same Breeding Day where exactly fifty years ago his Jury career had taken off, KFPS Chairman Bert Wassenaar honoured Haike with the Golden Pin.
A people´s job
‘There always comes a moment when you have to stop’, says 70-year-old Haike in the August issue of Phryso which runs an in-depth interview with him. ‘I don´t want people to say: look, still that same old guy in the ring!’ In this fifty-year time frame he saw how the Friesian horse evolved from agricultural horse to recreation- and sport horse, how the enthusiasm for inspections grew rapidly and also experienced the increase in professionalization of Jury members. ‘Judging should not be done on the basis of what you know but on the basis of what you see in the ring.’ It´s impossible to completely rule out personal preferences, it will always be a people´s job. Who knows, maybe at some point the VAR will be introduced for inspecting horses.’ It won´t be a complete farewell from the ring for Haike: he will continue to judge show driving sports.
